Off-Grid Living in Bernalillo County, New Mexico

I've been digging into what off-grid living actually looks like in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, and the first thing I want to flag is that this county is a patchwork. Albuquerque, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, and Tijeras all run their own codes, and the Town of Bernalillo actually sits partly in Sandoval County. Everything below is about unincorporated Bernalillo County, governed by Bernalillo County Planning & Development Services and the county's own ordinances. If you're inside city limits anywhere, call that municipality's planning office instead.

Zoning: The county has a real, full zoning ordinance, not a "no zoning" free-for-all. There are rural-agricultural zones (A-1, A-2) meant for low-density, remote-from-services living, and an R-1 zone for single-family homes on lots of at least ¾ acre (smaller if community water and sewer are available). Where your parcel falls in that map matters a lot, so I'd start there before buying land.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs: There's a Mobile Home & Single-Family (M-H) zone for manufactured home subdivisions, and manufactured homes are allowed on a per-lot basis in several zones. I could not confirm an official county policy on full-time tiny-home-on-wheels occupancy, so treat that as an open question for Planning & Development Services.

Building permits: Yes, required. The county issues permits and inspections under New Mexico's adopted construction codes for unincorporated projects.

Septic: Here's the unusual part. Unincorporated Bernalillo County is the one part of New Mexico that runs its own wastewater ordinance instead of the state NMED liquid-waste rule (incorporated cities inside the county use NMED). The county ordinance sets its own permitting and soil-testing requirements, and it mandates connecting to municipal sewer if you're within 200 feet of an available line. Standalone composting toilets with no liquid waste system at all aren't clearly addressed, so confirm with Public Works before assuming that's an option.

Greywater and rainwater: I didn't find county-specific rules for either, so the state baseline (NMED's greywater rule, OSE's general encouragement of rainwater harvesting) appears to apply.

Wells: This is the other big county-specific wrinkle. On top of the standard New Mexico Office of the State Engineer well permit, Bernalillo County requires its own well permit (county code addresses "permitting individual wells"), and you need the state permit number first. Multi-connection wells face additional conditional permitting. The Sandia Underground Water Basin is closed to new water-rights appropriations, though domestic well drilling can still happen there, worth a direct call to confirm your specific parcel.

Utilities: No blanket mandate to hook up to electric or water that I found, but the forced sewer connection within 200 feet of a line is the concrete constraint on going fully off-grid near populated areas.

Bottom line: unincorporated Bernalillo County allows rural, self-sufficient living, but its septic and well rules layer county requirements on top of state ones in ways that don't exist elsewhere in New Mexico. Confirm your exact parcel's zoning and water/wastewater situation before you commit.